Dawn over Raccoon City
by Gaius Vergilius Severus
Summary: A young man caught at the wrong place at the wrong time fights to make it out of Raccoon, however just when escape is in sight there is one thing he must do that is more important than his survival.


Shit, how many days has it been now? Three? Four? I can't remember, not like it matters anyway. Well I guess I may as well tell you about how I ended up down shit creek without a paddle. It's only a matter of time anyway…

It all started a few days ago, I just moved into a 1 bedroom apartment here in Raccoon City and I was enrolled in Raccoon University, and even got a job as an assistant at one of Umbrella Corp.'s offices. A few days after I'd moved in there was all sorts of stuff on the news about these weird cannibal murders with the victims being half eaten. I didn't think much of it at the time I was too busy getting settled in and what not. Raccoon wasn't that large of a city, but it was still fairly large, murders weren't an unexpected thing.

Then shit hit the fan…

I was sitting in a bar drinking a mint mojito when all of a sudden one of the patrons started acting weird. He completely looked like shit, skin was all pale, the guy looked completely ragged. He groaned right before he leaned over and bit the guy next to him, just bit his ear off like Mike Tyson. There was about nine of us there at the bar, including "Mike Tyson". Me, the bartender, the cannibal, the cannibal's meal, three girls and two guys. The two guys tried to pull him off the guy he had began to chomp on, only to turn on them and bite them as well. We finally knocked him down when me and another person literally beat the shit out of him with our bar stools. But by the time we had beaten him down, the two other people were badly hurt, and I was pretty sure the guy he was munching on was dead. The bartended went to call the police only to find the emergency lines all jammed up. Just then the stand-up comic on the TV flashed to a news report, apparently there was some kind of riot going on outside.

We decided to stay in the bar for the mean time until police showed up, the riot was going on just a few blocks away. Then we started hearing gunshots and the door slammed open and several people staggered in. They all looked like the guy we had just beaten to death, and we didn't hang around long enough to see if these people were any different. The bartender lead us out through the back into the ally. We expected to see looters, people flipping cars, or setting things on fire, you know the stuff you expect when you hear about a riot.

What we found was Hell…

Yeah there were cars flipped over, stores broken into, and random things on fire, but instead of rioters we found what I can only describe as zombies. We heard more gun fire and decided to head for that sound figuring it was the police, or the military. One of the girls said her truck was parked nearby in front of the bar. The streets were crawling with zombies and we left the illusionary safety of the ally and ran along side the building onto the street. As we made our way down the street, jumping over bodies scattered on the side walk, I noticed a dead cop laying between two cars, with a shotgun in his hand, a Remington M-1100 with a pistol grip stock. I ran over to the dead cop and took the shotgun and checked the body for ammo, he had several lose shells. Just then there was a large explosion, apparently a gas truck several blocks away exploded. I quickly rejoined the group and noticed the two guys who were bit weren't doing so well. Several of the zombies were getting close as we loaded them into her truck, which had a crew cab, and I quickly disposed of them with a couple shotgun blasts to the head. I, the bartended and one of the girls road in the back. We made our way to where we could hear the gunfire, dodging burning cars and plowing though crowds of zombies, and found a police barricade there. The cops were trying to gather the people still in the area and hold the zombies off and close the area. They told us that there was a nearby motel they had turned into an aid station.

We made our way to the aid station, with out incident thankfully. From there we went our separate ways, the others left to find their families and what not. I on the other hand decided to hang around the aid station. Not like I had a choice anyway, my apartment was in the sealed off area. It was a typical motel, a two story rectangular u-shaped building. I had eaten a small meal they had provided and I had fallen asleep on a cot in one of the rooms on the second floor, the shotgun not too far from arms reach. I figured the police would be able to get the situation under control by the end of the night.

Fuck, was I wrong…

I had probably been asleep for two or three hours before one of the aid workers came in and woke me and a few others in the room up and told us to get out, the zombies had overrun the police barricades in the area. She said there were a few officers still around but for the most part we were on our own. Isn't that fucking great? A few people decided to follow me since I had a shotgun with me, I had fully loaded the gun with 7 shells and had 6 in my pocket. I looked down from the balcony and surveyed the parking lot. I got there just in time to see the last of the cops from the barricade make their last stand. They had made a barricade from several squad cars, though the zombies just literally spilled over the cars and descended on the cops and everyone in the barricade. There were maybe seven officers and a few armed civilians with shotguns and handguns. It was a pretty gory scene, the zombies that got though first just started devouring the people behind the barricade while the rest of the flood just started pounding on the windows and breaking into the rooms where people were hiding. I didn't hang around long enough to find out if they could climb stairs. I made my way towards the back of the building and went down the fire escape ladder.

There were a few zombies down in the ally and I quickly took care of them with the shotgun. Following me were two girls and guy. We made our way out of the ally and onto to the street as we looked for any other people or a working car. Most of the cars in the area were fairly trashed and we got out into the street just in time to see the last person getting devoured by zombies. We were still in the downtown area and I had no idea how the other areas of the city were. I decided our best bet would be the Civic Center, with a few of the people with me didn't agree with that, well I was the one with the gun so they went along. It was a pretty much run and gun thing as we ran though the streets. This was certainly a sight from hell, smashed up cars, dead bodies everywhere, fires here and there, and of course the hordes of zombies. It would have been nice to take a car, but there was just too much shit in the road and various broken roadblocks and check points. I lost two people on our trek to the Civic Center. One of the girls saw her older sister in a pile of dead, can't remember her name, so much shit has been going on, I honestly can't be bothered to remember everyone's name. Anyway she rushed to her sister and tried to wake her up, well she got up all right. Took a big ass bite out of her little sister's throat and started chowing down. More zombies were coming and I didn't want to waste any ammo, so I hit the road and took off. The other two were pretty pissed at me for not doing anything, but hey what the fuck am I supposed to do, she's dead already.

The guy died when we weren't too far from the Civic Center, the roads were full of zombies and there was no way we were dodging all of them, so we ran into a restaurant hoping to get to the alley ways. If I remember correctly, the restaurant was just a large rectangular room with a set of double doors leading to the kitchen area. There were a few zombies we couldn't dodge that I dropped with the shotgun. Seven shots left, all in the gun. Thankfully there were a couple dead cops, I was able to get two handguns with a spare clip for each, I took one for myself and gave the other to the girl. While the guy was checking a dead cop by the window a zombie broke though the glass and dragged him into the street. Before I could get the handgun drawn he was out the window with three zombies on top of him and more on the way. I didn't want to risk using the shotgun since I was trying to save him and if the blast killed him too, well that pretty much defeats the purpose now doesn't it?

We took to the alleys and there were less zombies around. Still I had to drop a few, four shells left, as we made our way though the ally I heard a strange ticking sound coming from above us. Apparently there were worse things than the zombies out there. Picture a man with no skin, large claws in place of fingers, an exposed brain, and long whip like tongue. It was maybe a story above us, no sooner had I brought the shotgun up to bear, it dropped down from the wall and as it fell it flipped over so it would land on it's hands and feet.

"Shit, look out!"

I shouted to the girl, but the thing was just too fast, as it fell it took a swing at her head. And her head totally caved in on that side. Now I had gotten fairly numb over zombies eating people but this sort of left me a bit shaken, and she was no more than ten or twelve feet from me. I was sort of in a daze until this thing stuck it tongue though her torso and her blood splattered on my face. It started rapidly scrambling towards me on all fours, and I unloaded the shotgun into it's exposed brain. My last four shells totally demolished it's head and I sort of staggered towards a wall and slumped there for a moment. For the first time I wondered if I was going to get out of this alive. _I ain't dying until I at least say good-bye to her…_ I thought

I ditched the empty shotgun and drew my handgun, a Beretta M-92, and had to steal myself, when I approached the girl's mutilated body. Half her head was gone and brain matter was splatter all over the place, blood was flowing like a faucet out of the hole in her chest. I crouched down and pried the handgun from her dead fingers, curled in a death grip. I ejected the magazine and took the spare clip she had. I made my way though the alley way dodging what ever zombies I could and dropping the ones I couldn't. I wasn't even thinking at this point, the only thing on my mind was getting to safety, which seemed to be getting harder and harder. I had made it back on the streets and thankfully there weren't too many zombies and best of all I found a group of armed civilians and police. We made our way though the streets and we made it to the Civic Center, which to our relief still had it's barricades up.

I was finally able to get some rest since this whole ordeal started. They had several cots set up at the courthouse and I promptly passed out on one of the cots. I woke up in the afternoon and thankfully everything was still in place. I found myself in a rather unique situation, were I could observe people under severe stress.

I saw what I guess I would call The Weasel, you know, the guy who would do what ever it took to save his own ass. I could see these people hoarding medical supplies, some of them with guns were hoarding ammo. I can't really blame these guys. I can't say I approve of their actions, only way we're getting out of this is by working together, but I can understand. I certainly wouldn't trust any of these people to have my back. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I'd have any real issues using these people as shields, or killing them for ammo if it came down to it.

Naturally, I saw what I like to call The Trooper, you know, the ones who keep themselves together and do what they need to do. I saw a group of them, cops and armed civilians, checking weapons and what not. As I walked by they saw my M-92 and asked how I was on ammo, didn't matter at this point if I had a license for it or not. I replied that I was good with three spare clips, though I did tell them I'd be a bit more comfortable with some heavier firepower than just a 9mm pistol. I told them about the skinless freak I encountered on the way here, apparently a few of them have run into a few of those freaks, along with a couple others like some kind of lizard man with huge claws.

Following that, I saw what I named The Cheerleader, now the Cheerleader isn't necessarily a girl. The Cheerleader is that person that always tries to stay hopeful and encourage people not to give up. Often they either double as The Medic or The Trooper. I saw a few of these walking though the group just trying to give some moral support to the people on the verge of panic. One came by and asked how I was doing. I asked for a cigarette and said I was too tied to feel anything and to go help one else. She gave me a non-filter and left.

Of course there was The Medic, now the Medic is the one who has the medical training (Jesus Christ did I just say that? That was like something John Madden would say). In situations like these you often see them scurrying around from injured person to injured person. Thankfully I didn't have anything major and they just left me alone after asking if I was alright.

Most of all I saw The Panic, the Panic is a person who's on the verge of a mental break down, they're often people who just, well, lost it. They seen too many nasty things and can't take it. Some are just cracking up, others lost the will to live. If you asked me how I managed not to become a Panic, I wouldn't know, might have something to do with this photo I keep in my wallet of her.

I looked around and saw various groups of people, several more came into the Center and I noticed several wounded people. And suddenly I almost collapsed, just sort of lost my balance a little, I walked up to a nearby wall, sat down and leaned against it. I don't know what it was, I guess everything just finally caught up with me. I looked over at some of the injured people and most of them were pretty bad, then I realized just how numb I'd gotten to the carnage, I'd just look at these people and just mentally shrug. I looked around and though about which of these different groups I'd fall into, after a while I pretty much just gave up, I was more of a lone wolf. I'll take help when it comes, but I'm not looking to save the world, I just want to get out of this shit alive, if I save a life cool, if not, ah well. While I looked around, I noticed a small group of Umbrella employees sitting and talking amongst themselves. One thing that caught my attention was that one of them had a sort of guilty look on their face. Now, yes I work for Umbrella too, but I'm only an administrative assistant, I didn't know what these guys knew, and honestly, I don't think I want to. I took my wallet out and looked a picture of a girl I know, I found myself looking at this picture for a good three or so minutes and it helped to strengthen my resolve. I put the picture back and decided to take a nap, it was late afternoon.

Screaming, more fucking screaming, I'm tried of this goddamned screaming!

It was dark when the screaming woke me up. The place was already starting to go ape shit by the time I got up and got the cobwebs out of my head. I asked the nearest person what the hell was going on. Apparently several of the injured turned zombie and started munching on people. I drew my gun and ran towards where the commotion was, it was worse than I expected. Not only had the zombies broken out of the injured ward by they even managed to take the few people manning the nearby barricade and now zombies were starting to pour in. This place was finished, that was for damn sure, but I wasn't sure where to go next. I ran by the two umbrella guys both of them about half eaten and noticed one of them had a blood stained folder in their hands.

I had read something in the tabloids about the STARS accusing Umbrella of what was going on, and something about some incident at the old Spencer Estate. I figured there could be something in these papers, so I decided to take them with me, to look at later, provided I was still alive of course. I decided to head back to the courthouse area, I was hoping that they were able to reestablish a defensive line further back into the Center. I quickly made my way back, across the courtyard. Several zombies were lurching around amidst the fallen barricades, and I had to drop a couple. It took me about five shots to drop three of the zombies.

As I fought my way back to the courthouse, I saw a group of Troopers trying to hold back the zombies at one of the barricades. I knew it was a lost cause, since the zombies just kept coming, it was only a matter of time before the overran the barricades. I didn't feel like dying so I kept running past them. I turned the corner and the court building was in sight but what I saw told me I was fucked. The door to the courthouse was broken and zombies were lurching out. I felt like I took a punch to the gut, and I guess I let my guard down, I heard a zombie behind me and when I turned around it was right on top of me, though before it could grab me a bullet tore though it's head and it hit the ground. I looked to my right where the bullet came from, and there stood a rather beautiful woman, she wore a light blue tube top shirt, a black mini-skirt and had a white sweater tied around her waist.

_Well well, saved by Officer Jill Valentine…of all people…_ I thought.

"You there, are you the only one?" She asked.

"I'm not sure, I think there are still a few around here." I answered.

"How's your ammo?" she asked as she reloaded her pistol, a Beretta M-92F, like mine.

"Ten in the gun, and three spare clips." I said.

"I barricaded the high school, and I'm looking for survivors. There are already a couple people there and other are helping me look for survivors. Another person with a gun here is always a plus." She said as she ejected the clip from her gun and checked how many she had left in it.

"I was on my way to check the courthouse, but I doubt there's anyone left." I said as I scanned the area, more zombies were lurching towards us.

"I was just there, they're all gone." She said. "Come on, there's on point in staying here…" She said as she began running. "Hopefully they're still safe there." She said as she ran.

She lead the way thought the trashed streets of Raccoon City, though hordes of zombies, the occasional freak and dead bodies on their way to becoming zombies. We ran for a good ten or so minutes. Now I'm a little out of shape, I'll admit that, but it's funny how you just find the strength to keep going, when under normal conditions you would have collapsed. Though, through the whole run I couldn't stop looking at her ass…

Anyway we made it there alive and thankfully the barricades were still up. Jill left to check the other barricades and to go look for more survivors. The high school was made up of several buildings within a fenced area. It was the buildings that were barricaded and I decided to hole up in the main building. After my last experience at the Civic Center, I decided to keep an eye on one of the barricades myself. I'd been sitting there for maybe a good fifteen to twenty minutes before I remembered that Umbrella folder I had stuffed in my pocket. After reading a few of the pages, I decided in good conscience that I couldn't go back to work. What I had were test results and research reports, and Umbrella was up to some really naughty shit. These papers described human experimentations, bio-organic weapons, viruses, this stuff had to be top secret. I figured I'd best keep these to myself for the mean time. After a few moments I had gotten an idea about what to do with these files and I went straight for the school's computer lab.

The scene was very similar to the Civic Center with the addition of what I like to call The Poser. Now the Poser is a person who tries to act all tough, when all they really are is chicken-shit. The Poser is usually a guy on some testosterone kick, you know like teenage boys, specifically jockos. I didn't pay these guys any heed and continued my search for the computer lab. After searching a few rooms, taking a drink from a broken into vending machine, I finally found it. Apparently my luck wasn't complete shit, I found a computer with a scanner, and most of all no one was around. I began scanning the files in and storing them in the flash drive in my Swiss Army knife keychain, afterwards I burned the papers.

I returned to the barricade only find the situation about to go to hell. Somehow the zombies figured out there were people here and a crowd of them had gathered by the barricade. A girl looked out the window of the door that was barricaded and started screaming that her boyfriend was out there, and a moment later she started taking down the barricade saying she had to save him. I had drawn my gun and threatened to shoot her if she didn't stop, of course at this point she had become a Panic and didn't listen to anyone I was still on the stairs but I had a clear shot at her, I took aim for her leg when a shot rang out from down the hall and people started yelling and screaming as part of her head exploded. The source of the shot was from a man in a military looking uniform with a large Umbrella emblem on his back. _Aw shit _I figured they were probably looking for the papers. I had heard about these guys, mercenaries hired by Umbrella and formed into the Umbrella Bio-Hazard Countermeasures Service. Now this was just water cooler rumors, didn't think they were real. Now I found out they were real, and they were packing what looked like M-4 carbines with Light-weight Shotgun Systems attached to the barrel.

"Why did you kill her!" Shouted another man in a UBCS uniform.

"You, go put the barricade back up." the shooter said looking at another person who promptly complied. "I shot her because our mission is to rescue as many civilians as possible. If she were to take that down, imagine how many would die." He calmly said. He was about to say something when a man, almost out of breath ran down the hallway.

"Th…They got though!" He gasped.

"Where?" The first UBCS soldier said.

"Down… near the science labs…" The man answered. "We piled up some desks but I don't think they'll hold."

"Shit…" The second UBCS soldier muttered. He looked over at the man he told to put the barricade back up for a moment before he drew his sidearm, what looked like a USP, and tossed it to him. "Make sure that stay's up till I get back" He ordered and the two ran off.

I'd decided to follow them down the hall, I figured one more gun couldn't hurt. I hadn't taken three steps and I heard automatic fire. I know a sinking ship when I see one, and this thing was going down faster than the USS Arizona. The zombies were already pouring into the buildings, the desk barricade doing little to slow them down. I fired a few shots trying to target their heads.

"Save your ammo!" The first UBSC soldier said. "Start getting everyone upstairs, we'll hold them off here as long as we can, then we'll catch up to you!" He ordered.

"Got it!" I went though all the classrooms shouting "everyone upstairs now!" As everyone was pushing their way up the stairs, I saw two cops trying to fight their way down.

One noticed my gun and asked "What's going on!"

"The zombies have gotten in, we're getting everyone up stairs, there's two UBCS guys downstairs trying to hold them off." Upon hearing "gotten in" and "zombie" the cops undid the safites on their guns (one with a MP-5 and another with a shotgun) and made their way to where the gunfire was coming from.

"You get up stairs and do whatever you need to do to keep them from getting up there!"

It had been maybe five minutes since the UBCS guy had told me to get everyone up stairs when I heard an explosion. I had taken up a position by the stairs when I heard it, the hallway was full of smoke when I saw one of the UBCS guys, and the two cops materialize from the smoke. "Move, get up stairs now!" The UBCS soldier said and I ran up the stairs, at the top of the stairs the others had barred the stairs with a heavy teacher's desk, and they slid it to allow the four of us to get to the second floor and slid it back in place, while the two officers took up position at the desk for the inevitable zombie attack.

"What happened to the other guy?" I asked, not straying too far from the stairs.

"Dead, when the zombies broke though, one got him and he set off a grenade to stall them." The UBCS soldier answered.

It had been only a few minutes and the zombies were at the stairs. Apparently they had a hard time getting up the stairs, since they would kind of fall over and start crawling up the stairs. I had emptied my clip into the zombies and loaded another when someone yelled behind me.

"PUSH THE DESK OVER!"

I turned and saw several people dragging out another desk similar to the one we had blocked the stairs with. So we had shoved the desk down the stairs, crushing and knocking over several zombies with it, and we replaced the desk with the one they dragged out.

A moment later I turned to one of the officers next to me and said "Looks like none of you guys have radios, we can't just stay here forever. We're going to run out of ammo and desks to throw."

"He's right, the school's not safe anymore, at least not this building anyway." The soldier said walking towards us from the hall. "I looked around the building, we can get to the roof and get down via the emergency escape ladder."

"How does it look though?" One of the cops asked.

"Could be worse. It's clear from here to what I think is the library, but the chain link fence holding back the zombies won't hold forever. It's kind of now or never if we're going to head for one of the other buildings. This one obviously isn't safe anymore." The soldier answered.

"Well, what did you think of the library, it look safe?" The second cop asked.

"Hard to tell from here, there are lights on there so it's a good chance there's someone there, and the doors were shut. What about back up?" The soldier said.

The first cop shook his head, "Our radios were damaged, and even if we had them, the situation is so out of control, we're basically on our own."

"I say we head for the library, we know it's pointless to stay here." The other cop said.

"I agree." The soldier said.

"Well I'm good to go." I said holding up my gun.

A few moments later we were all on the roof, there was maybe twenty of us. The two officers were going to go first, while me and the soldier would keep up the rear. There was no telling how long that fence would hold so we were running there. We were about half way there when as my luck would have it the fence came down and the zombies started coming in. It was like a damn tidal wave about to crash down on top of us.

"DON'T STOP RUNNING!" The soldier yelled.

The zombies were lurching towards us and we all ran as fast as we could, we reached the library and several began pounding on the door while the cops joined me and the soldier at the back of the crowd, shortly the guy with the soldier's handgun was with us too. The zombies were a few yards away when we opened fire on them. They were almost on top of us and I had almost emptied my clip when the door opened. A moment later we were in the library and the others were barricading the door. The soldier was right about there being more survivors in the library, there was two more UBCS soldiers and a three more cops and about fifteen or so civilians. Two of the cops were SWAT, the other was packing a shotgun, one of the UBCS soldiers carried the same M-4 with LSS attachment the other two had, but the second, a guy named Carl, interestingly carried a heavily modified M-14. I had asked him about that gun, and he had an interesting story to tell with that gun.

His brother was an Umbrella researcher and got him a job in the UBCS after he was discharged from the Army. After he got to see first hand what the UBCS would be dealing with. He decided to swap the M-4 the company issued for an M-14. He had the gun modified with a polymer stock, a detachable bayonet, and a three fire burst mode in place of the full auto. He'd asked how I was on ammo, I told him I was getting low and he left me three spare clips, said he and his comrade had raided a gun store and had plenty of ammo.

"Thank God you're alive!" I heard a female voice behind me say. I turned and instantly recognized her, my friend Ashleigh from work, we also had class together.

"Good to see you're not dead either." I said as I ejected the clip from my gun to count how many bullets I still had in it, four, four rounds left. We talked about how we had gotten here, I told her about that night at the bar, the aid station, and the Civic Center. She had been at home when things got out of control and ended up getting to an aid station set up in an S-Mart, after a few days the station was overrun when several injured people became zombies, Officer Valentine had shown up at the store and led her and several of the other survivors to the high school.

Maybe an hour or so had passed, the two of us were tending to some of the wounded, she had received some medical training, when we heard some of the windows shatter behind us.

"What the fuck!" I swore as I turned around and saw several crows fly through the window where they had crashed though the glass. Fortunately it wasn't long till a hail of fire took them all down. Everyone who was armed was checking their ammo when things turned from pretty bad to out right shitty. It wasn't long after the crows had crashed though the window when those skinless freaks with the tongues from before showed up. There must have been a pack of them outside or something since they just kept pouring in though the window.

The first one scurried into the building along the ceiling, though we were able to take it down quickly enough, but while we were dealing with that one two more came in. The UBSC soldier from before had just blasted one of them in it's exposed brain at close range with his LSS when another landed behind him and before I could take aim, stabbed him with it's tongue. Another that was able to dodge a few shots from an armed civilian before it suddenly crouched back and leapt forward and tore his chest open with it's massive claws, before Carl put three 7.62mm slugs in it's head.

"BEHIND US!" Ashleigh screamed, and before it's tongue could hit me she tackled me out of the way.

I looked around and found it scurrying towards us and I sent one, two, three 9mm slugs to it's face. After the third it thrashed around a little and stopped moving. A second later I saw Carl standing over us, holding his hand out.

"Come on we can't stay here much longer." he said as he helped us up.

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

"Before those… _things_… came in several of the officers were looking over maps of the city and they think we'll be able to make it to the police station. And hopefully from there, me or one of the other UBCS people can reestablish contact with base and get the evac started." He said.

"Evac?" I'd asked.

"Out mission was to evacuate as many civilians as possible. Unfortunately things went to shit the minute we touched down. Our evac points were completely overrun and we lost contact with base and each other, since then we've been scattered and trying to carry out our mission as best we can." He explained.

We walked towards the back of the library where the cops were. One of the cops, his nametag said Velasquez, called out "Everyone, meet over here please!" A moment later everyone in the library was gathered around the table, and one of the officers spoke up. "It's clear that this place is no longer safe, so we've decided to move to the police station, which isn't too far from here. Who here has a firearm?"

I and several others raised our hands, maybe about five of us so the total or armed people was about ten out of thirty five or so.

"OK, what we're going to do is split up into three groups, it'll be too hard to cover every one if we moved as a large group."

"What about the other buildings, is there anyone left in the school?" Someone asked.

"I'll go and check out the other buildings and see if there are any survivors there. Does anyone have a cell phone with reception?" Velasquez asked.

Most shook their heads, most of the cell phone towers in the city were damaged and just about everyone's phone was next to useless within the city.

A few moments later we had divided into three groups, three armed men per group, I was grouped with one of the cops, named Deleon armed with a shotgun, Carl, and a guy with a shotgun. Our path would take us though a mini mall where the cop said there was a gun store at. With a little luck the store wouldn't have been fully ransacked by the time we got there.

We moved quickly once we left the limited safety of the library, the zombies were hanging around and took them a while to notice we were there. We made our way though the largely deserted campus, apparently only a few sections of the fence went down and the zombies didn't all pour in. by this point I was far more worried about those freaks than the zombies. The high school was in the middle or a residential area, which wasn't far from where all the businesses were. It was almost dark, maybe about fifteen or so minutes of daylight left, and the homes had a surreal sense to them, while there were lights on, there was no sign of anyone still alive.

We stayed in the middle of the street so we wouldn't get ambushed, there were a few zombies in the street but none seemed to pay us any attention, most were feasting on the bodies strewn around. Then I heard a growling noise, not unlike that of a dog, but there was something a little different.

"You hear that?" I asked. Carl and the shotgun guy were up front, while me and Deleon were at the rear of the group, Ashleigh was right in front of me.

"Yeah…" Deleon said as he switched on the flashlight attached to the barrel of his gun. He shined it at the source of the growling, in a narrow spot between two houses and I guess the light pissed them off or something but these two zombie dogs I guess, ran at us full tilt.

"OH FUCK!" I yelled taking several shots at the dogs, missing each shot. Then behind me and to my right I heard the roar of Deleon's shotgun, demolishing the head on one of the dogs. The second dog charged at Deleon while he was reloading, unfazed by the death of the other dog, and leapt up towards Deleon's throat, luckily at the last moment he swung his shotgun, hitting the dog in the head with the stock, after I fell I put two bullets into it.

"Alright, we'd better move it, who knows what else is around here!" Carl said from up front.

"It's not that far, we can make it in about 5 or so minutes if we ran." Deleon answered as he reloaded the shotgun.

"Well I guess it's time to for a little jog then." Carl said as he broke into a slow run, that everyone could keep up with. We made it to the small mini mall in the five minutes that Deleon had estimated, and miraculously we didn't lose anyone. Luckily there was a group of survivors that had barricaded the L shaped mall with cars that they practically crashed into each other. While the gun shop had been ransacked, most of the people who took the guns were still in the area.

There were a few cops around, about five or so, two SWAT and three regulars, the SWAT guys had MP-5s while one of the regulars had just his M-92, another a shotgun, and another a Ruger Mini-14 from the gun store. We also finally got our first bit of good news, the area around the police station was still relatively safe and they had sent two of those SWAT team vans to evacuate us. One of the SAWT guys told me it would be about ten to fifteen minutes for the vans to get there.

I was sitting in a bakery in the mall eating a danish with Ashleigh when I heard gun fire from the other side of the wall. "Goddamn it, I just knew it was only a matter of time." I grumbled as I stood up and headed out.

"I'm going to the gun store to see if there's still anything left." Ashleigh said.

"OK, I'm going to head for the barricade and see what's going on, meet you there." I answered.

She nodded and we were off. I got to the barricade to find Carl and the others firing down the street. I looked down the street at what they were firing at and first I felt a sense of relief, then a sense of "Ah shit!" It was the other group from the high school, though it looked about the same size some of the people were different, then I noticed Officer Velasquez amongst the group, he'd survived and found more survivors. _Well survived until now anyway…_ I thought as I fired at the zombies around them.

Of course we couldn't save all of them, but most of them made it. As they started climbing over the barricade of cars, Carl pointed something out. "What the FUCK is that!" He asked.

I looked to where he was point and saw some bizarre reptilian looking creature. It had a figure like a gorilla, muscular and hunched over. But it's skin? I guess it was. Was green, and it had long, nasty looking claws that almost touched the floor. It was definitely something not natural, like those weird things with the tongues.

Then I heard one of the survivors yell from behind me. "OH SHIT, one of them followed us. KILL THAT FUCKER!"

Then the whole line targeted the monster and fired. But just before we fired the thing leapt up in the air and landed not to far from us. One more jump like that and it would have gotten in, we didn't let it have that jump. Once it landed we sent a hail of bullets of different calibers at it. We completely shredded it with our fire, it was like one of those scenes from a movie where some unlucky bastard finds himself looking right down the bore of a heavy machine gun. As we blasted it, the thing gave out this high pitched piercing scream that hurt my ears. A few moments later we killed off the last of the zombies in the area.

A few minute later I was back at the bakery with Ashleigh (she'd found herself a Browning Hi Power at the store) and one of the survivors. Apparently Velazquez has found more survivors in the other buildings and even managed to catch up to the other group. They ended up going though part of the business district to get here, where they ended up getting jumped by a group of those weird lizard men things. The lizard men killed about a quarter the group before they drove them off, then shortly after they got away from them the zombies showed up. They ended up having to split up since it was too hard for a large group to move in the city, so far no ones knows what's become of them.

Then I heard more shooting and rushed back outside, me and Ashleigh took up positions on either side of Carl. "The other group?" I asked.

"Yeah… well sort of…" Carl said as he sighted a target down his rifle. When I looked at the group I saw what he meant. It was the other group all right, I recognized some from the high school, but they were all zombies.

Unlike the last time, the zombies this time just kept coming, we'd shoot one and three more would come and take it's place.

"I really need to find a new line of work after this…" I heard Carl grumble as he reloaded. "Maybe mall security…" He said as he started firing again.

The zombies had closed to maybe fifty yards at the most when I heard someone yelling behind us, "THEY'RE HERE, THEY'RE HERE!" A moment after I realized "THEY" was the vans that was sent to get us I heard Carl yelling at me and Ashleigh, "GO, I'll be right behind you!"

"Alright!" I said as we left our positions and ran towards the back of the mall. The vans were parked in the ally and we had to go though the back doors of the stores to get to them. We reached the bakery when I turned back, Carl and the rest of them were pulling back as the zombies started spilling over the barricades. I turned and headed back to the vans. The cops there were trying to load everyone in as quickly as they could. The cops and the UBCS that were at the barricades came though the doors, "LETS GO!" one shouted as he jumped into the back of the van. A moment later we got everyone in the vans and we were on our way. Miraculously we didn't lose too many people. The ride was a bit bump, but that was to be expected considering the situation.

When we arrived at the police station, the vans parked in the under ground parking garage. The station looked fairly safe aside from the large windows, but I felt a little better when I heard they'd barricaded the outside of the station. Me and Ashleigh had walked around the station looking for people we knew, I ran into Carl who was talking with several officers and other UBCS soldiers, told me he couldn't get though to HQ, too much static for some reason. We looked around a little more, found some people we knew from school and work but none of our friends. I was able to find enough clips to replace the ammo I used at the strip mall. We eventually ended up taking over a bench on the first floor waiting room and ended falling asleep.

I awoke to someone shaking me and expected the worse, _Fuck, let me guess, the zombies got in… _only to wake up to find a very attractive woman in her late twenties or early thirties shaking me. It took me a moment to realize she was my boss from Umbrella, a researcher named Victoria Nox.

"Boss?" I'd asked half groggy.

"Yeah it's me, thank God you're alive." Her concerned eyes framed by a pair of wireframe glasses. "I need you to come with me to the lab, there's something important I need to get from there."

"Are you fucking crazy, I ain't going back out there!" I said, snapping away at her bizarre request.

"Look, I can't explain right now, but you're one of the few I trust, and what's there is key to stopping what's happening in the city. " She said in a quite voice.

"I'm not going back out there." I firmly said.

"Listen what I need at the office can save all the infected people, but I need you to come with me." She pleaded.

"Why can't you find someone else, like a cop or one of those UBCS guys?" I asked.

"Because there are people who want that thing for other reasons and I don't know who I can trust." She said, still pleading.

"Tsh fine I'll go, but you owe me big for this boss, I mean like a raise or a promotion or something. " I growled as I woke Ashleigh up and stood up.

Victoria looked over a Ashleigh who was still half asleep and then leaned in close and ran her finger along my cheek and spoke in a seductive tone. "We get back from this and you've got your promotion, along with a little extra."

"That important huh?" I asked, with a smile.

"Yes, come on lets go." She said.

As I turned Ashleigh awoke, "Where you guys going?"

"We have to get something really important at the lab." I said.

"Just you two? I'm going with you!"

"No you stay here, it's too dangerous out there." I firmly said.

"And that's why it's alright for just you two?" She shot back.

I was about to say something when Victoria spoke up. "It's not that far from the station, only a block outside the barricade. It shouldn't be that dangerous."

"OK fine you can come." I relented.

We were on our way out when we ran into Carl again, though Victoria recognized him too.

"Hey I know you, you're Allen's brother." Victoria said.

Carl looked at her with an expression like he was scanning his memory before he said something. "Oh that's right, you're his friend Victoria."

"We're heading back to the Umbrella lab just outside the barricade there's something important I need to get, actually it's related to what Allen was working on." Victoria explained.

"Well if it's important enough that you need to go back into the city I'll go with you." He said. "You have a gun?"

"It's a little old but I make sure it's in good working order and I take it to the range at least twice a week." Victoria answered as she pulled an old Mauser C-96 from her coat.

"Whoa where did you get that from?" I asked.

"Family heirloom from an ancestor who served in WWI." She said, patting the barrel as she held the gun up.

A moment later we were outside, we went out the back way, down the stairs of the side of the helipad, climbed over the barricades and hit the streets. Victoria explained that all of this was being caused by a virus that leaked, what she was working on in the lab was the anti-virus, she said it was vital we got it out of the city so more could be made incase the virus spread beyond the city. Allen, Carl's brother was working on part of the anti-virus in another city, that part he was working on was shipped to the city a few days before the outbreak and Victoria said there should either be a synthesized version, or all the parts to make one at the lab.

Thankfully we only ran into a few zombies in the street past the barricade, Victoria swiped her key card and unlocked the door to the office, below the office was the lab. We entered to find an empty office, lights were off and no one was around. The office was where I worked, I usually ended up doing all the boring stuff that Victoria didn't want to do like type up reports, data entry, etc. "This way…" Victoria said leading the way to the back where the elevator was.

"Boss are you and Allen the only ones making a vaccine?" I asked.

"No there's another researcher named Peter Jenkins making one synthesized from slightly different materials, over at the University, his version is called Daylight. Mine and Allen's is called Akatsuki." She explained as she hit the elevator's call button.

"Akatsuki?" I asked.

"Yeah, it means Dawn in Japanese." She explained as she swiped her ID card and inputted the password to allow us access to the labs in the basement.

The name made sense to me since I remembered Victoria was half Japanese. A moment later we were at B3 where the machine to synthesis the vaccine was. The elevator opened into a hallway, there was a door to the left, then further down another door to the right, at the end of the hall was what looked like a blast door. We followed Victoria through the door on the right, the room was full of various equipment. The room was fairly large, with a large machine in the center, and several smaller ones on the edges of the room. We found Victoria hunched over a particular machine.

"Shit." She said shaking her head. "It's not here…" She said to us.

"What, we came here for nothing!" I asked.

"No, it's here, just hasn't been synthesized. I need you two (looking at me and Ashleigh) to go up to B1 and get a vial of some red chemicals. There's a freezer in the back of the room, and it's the only thing there's that's red. Carl and I will get the other ingredient, up in B2.

We got back in the elevator and after Victoria and Carl got off at B2, Ashleigh spoke up. "Is this where you work?"

"Nah, I work up at the office, I've never even been down here before. I mean I knew it was here, I just didn't know what went on in it." The layout of B1 was similar to B3, only instead of a blast door at the end it was an actual wall. We opened the first door to find an empty break room, I'd went and taken a soda from the fridge, intentionally picking on that had "Victoria" written on it to see if she'd notice later. We went into the other room and found it just as empty, there were several machine that were still on, and in the back was the freezer. Just like she said there was the vial with the red stuff in it.

We got back and found Victoria and Carl in the first room we went to, a not-too-happy look on Victoria's face. "What's up?" I asked.

"There's only… Oh thanks for drinking my soda… Anyway, there's only enough material to make one sample, I was hoping to make at least two." She held out her hand and I gave her the vial. She mixed the ingredients and put them in the machine, when suddenly we heard a distant roar and a loud thud.

"What the hell was that?" Carl asked.

"Oh God, please don't let that thing be lose…" Victoria said.

"What thing!" I asked.

"The company gave us a "failed" specimen to test the Akatsuki on. We had it locked up in the room on the other side of the blast door. If that thing is loose we have to hurry." She said as she drew her C-96. And placed the chemicals into the machine. "Five minutes"

"If this thing is a failed specimen then why is so dangerous?" I asked.

"Well shortly after we got it, the thing started mutating, we weren't sure why, but when the outbreak occurred in the city we decided to lock it down in the lab we do virus research in for the mean time. That room is air tight, but I'm not sure how long it will hold that thing. At first it wasn't really that big and seemed to be in a comatose state." She said.

BAM

All of us were startled by the loud blow against the wall. Which was followed by another. "That wall isn't going to hold…" Carl said as he brought his M-14 up. "Everyone on the other side of the room!" he said.

"Three minutes…" Victoria said. "When it's done I want you two to take the Akatsuki, we'll be right behind you. It has to get out of the city no matter what, don't give it to anyone unless you know they're with the government." She said looking at me and Ashleigh. "Considering what's happened here, I don't know what Umbrella will do with that sample." She added.

Then part of the wall collapsed and the thing Victoria was so scared over walked into the room. The thing was the size of a large person, like Shaq, though instead of arms it had these weird muscular appendages, like tentacles, it had two more of these coming out of it's back. It's face didn't really resemble anything I've seen before, it was just a huge mouth with needle teeth and small eyes. It had one leg larger than the other and reminded me of those pictures I'd seen on the internet of people in 3rd world countries with gigantism.

Then I heard the rattle of Carl's M-14, he had taken a position where the machinery was between him and the monster, the worst thing was, while it was ignoring the machine creating the Akatsuki, the machine was right next to the thing. Carl's M-14 was later joined by Victoria's C-96 and my M-92.

The monster let out an inhuman scream and thrust one of it's tentacles out at Carl, who just barely dodged being impaled, the monster then swung it appendage around and knocked Victoria over.

"Ash, get down!" I yelled as I took cover behind the machine dominating the room, and held my gun over the machine and sprayed a burst in the general direction of the monster.

Victoria crawled over to out side and asked if Carl was alright, and as soon as she did, we heard his M-14 firing again. She looked over the machine and saw the Akatsuki was ready. "Damn the monster is still too close, and we can't risk it destroying the only sample. I'm going to distract it, and I want you two to grab the sample and get to the elevator."

"Got it boss, what are you going to do though?" I asked.

"What I have to do to get it's attention enough for you to get the sample. Are you ready?"

"Yeah" I said getting ready to make a run for the sample. The monster was busy with Carl, but it was standing right next to the synthesis machine, Carl wasn't enough to distract it.

Then Victoria jumped over and stood up on the machine, targeting the monster's head with her C-96.

"Victoria what are you doing?" Carl shouted.

"You two, get the sample and run!" Victoria shouted.

The monster launched all four of it's tentacles at Victoria, and I ran, for the sample, not bothering to look back. A split second later me and Ashleigh were at the door, I gave her the sample and told her to wait at the elevator. I turned to find the monster grab Victoria by the arms with two of it's tentacles, Carl desperately trying to draw it's attention back.

"AAHHHH, RUN! RUN!" Victoria screamed as the monster impaled her though the stomach. It then put a second tentacle though her throat, before throwing her body at me.

Victoria's body hit me with full force, knocking me against the wall, a fog instantly settling in my brain when my head hit the wall. When I shook the cobwebs out of my head I saw the monster had taken Carl too.

"RUN! I'VE GOT A GRENADE!" he shouted.

I did as he ordered, but not before seeing him drop a grenade at the monster's feet. I ran for the elevator and thankfully Ashleigh had hit the call button, I ran into the elevator and turned around only to see half the monster crawling towards us, only one tentacle intact, before the elevator closed on the scene.

"Damn… I just want to get back to the police station." I said as I collapsed on the elevator's floor.

We headed back and the trip back was as uneventful as the trip to the lab. However it was a different story when we got to the police station. The station was in the process of being overrun.

"Hey! Hey!"

I heard someone calling from not too far away. We followed the voice to a badly injured UBCS soldier laying amongst a pile of rubble. "The zombies are already in… lost cause. We got in touch with HQ, there's an evac point at the No. 3 fire station near here, go!" He said his voice weakening.

"What about you?" I asked.

"It's too late for me, just go!" He answered.

I nodded and we headed off. Fire station No.3 wasn't far from here, we decided to take the back alleys to get there. Well that was a bad idea in hindsight. As we ran though the alley ways, a zombie lunged out from an open doorway to our left and managed to take a bite into my left arm before I put a bullet in it's head. We were half way there when I started to feel weak, fortunately there was an abandoned trailer that cops use for command centers in one of the streets where a barricade had been. We entered the trailer, no one was in it of course.

"Here's just sit and rest for awhile, I'll look for some water." Ashleigh said as she sat me down next to a laptop that was already booted up.

While Ashleigh was searching the trailer I opened a word processor document and began typing out my experiences here, so now we've come full circle folks. For a moment I thought about taking the Akatsuki from Ashleigh and using it on myself, but before I acted on that I thought about what would happen if this outbreak went beyond Raccoon City. Besides, I was already starting to feel weaker and a little itchy. I ejected the clip from my gun and gave Ashleigh the spare ammo (keeping one bullet for myself), a my flash drive (which I saved my little story on to) to give with the Akatsuki to who ever, and a message to someone very important to me. As far as I'm concerned, well I have no intention of becoming one of those things, in a few minutes Ashleigh will be off to the evac point, with plenty of ammo, will she make it, I dunno, but I think she can, it's only a few blocks away. I don't know when I'll turn and I rather not be near any uninfected person.

Well then, this is it, I'm done with this world…


End file.
